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London close: FTSE ties on positive resources-led Friday

Stocks in London tied on a positive Friday performance thanks to gains in resources behemoths and after better-than-expected UK manufacturing data, continuing its rebound after the mid-week Donald Trump-inspired sell-off.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.46% to 7,470.71, and the FTSE 250 was ahead 0.62% to 19,812.80. This was as sterling made good inroads into the dollar, but edged down against the euro.

Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were doing well, while on the continent the Euro Stoxx 50, Dax and Cac 40 were all advancing.

Titan miners did well as the dollar wheezed. Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Glencore did particularly good.

"Further US dollar weakness is giving succour to commodity prices, and in turn UK miners are the driving force behind the FTSE bounce," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.

Oil giants BP and Shell were up thanks to hearty gains in the prices of WTI and Brent crude, these driven by hopes of cartel Opec next week extending its production curbs into 2018.

Connor Campbell, financial analyst at SpreadEx, noted that the market's green glow only grew more intense after the US open. The Dow was the latest index to recover some of its US President Trump-inspired losses, he said.

David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said the turnaround seen yesterday was staying on track for the moment.

"There hasn't been any major developments in relation to (US President) Donald Trump, and dealers are cautiously picking up stocks," said Madden. Wall St was recovering from the sell-off sparked by concerns that Trump could be impeached.

"We still have a fair bit to go to make up for the losses earlier this week, but while the word 'impeachment' isn’t being bandied about as much, investors are taking on more risk," said Madden.

"This story hasn't gone away, and for the time being it seems to be paused, but me mindful that it could flare up again."

Meanwhile, UK market sentiment got a boost after the latest survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed UK manufacturing output in April was much stronger than expected.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Markit, said: "This is an encouraging survey that fuels hopes that the UK economy is on course for some pick-up in growth in the second quarter after GDP expansion more than halved to 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter."

In corporate news, Hikma Pharmaceuticals rose as it updated its guidance on full year revenue to be $2bn-$2.1bn in constant currency after last week's delay of its asthma drug application by US regulators.

Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited said general meetings of shareholders are being convened for the purpose of approving the divestment of Coal & Allied Industries Limited to Yancoal Australia Ltd.

Aviva and Direct Line were higher but Legal & General dropped after they updated the market on their Solvency II positions.